Implementing advanced new rural criteria in Nghe An, many localities face difficulties

Special conditions difficult to implement

Dien Bich commune is a coastal locality of Dien Chau district. When starting to build a new rural area, it had a low starting point. People here used to struggle with poverty. 98% of the population lived on fishing, fishing logistics and salt making. Mobilizing people to build a new rural area was still limited. Overcoming many difficulties, by 2022, Dien Bich commune had just met the new rural standards, and was in the bottom group of Dien Chau district.

Narrow rural roads in coastal communes. Photo: QA

After achieving the new rural standards, Dien Bich commune embarked on the task of building the commune to meet the advanced new rural standards. However, among the 19 advanced criteria, there are some criteria that the locality is very concerned about because they are difficult to implement, notably the criteria for transportation and people's income.

Being a coastal commune with a small land area and a large population, it is not difficult to see the narrowness of the internal and inter-hamlet roads in Dien Bich commune today. There are roads where motorbikes have difficulty passing each other, not to mention cars.

Therefore, during rush hours such as when students go home from school or when fishing boats dock at the port, there are still local congestions. Regarding traffic criteria, when requiring commune and hamlet roads to be maintained annually, ensuring bright - green - clean - beautiful and having necessary items such as signs, directional signs, lighting, speed bumps, trees... for convenient and safe travel, it is very difficult to implement, not to mention the investment costs for traffic are not low.

Motorbikes must avoid each other when traveling on inner-village roads in Nghi Thiet commune (Nghi Loc). Photo: QA

Mr. Nguyen Van Nam - Head of Hai Nam Hamlet, Dien Bich Commune said: Hai Nam Hamlet, although small in area, has 420 households, nearly 2,000 people, land is limited, population is crowded for many generations, so narrow roads are inevitable. Every year, when there is a source of cement, the hamlet always proactively upgrades the roads, but the issue of donating land, opening wide roads, ensuring traffic safety is very difficult to implement because of limited land fund.

Mr. Nguyen Van Lien - Vice Chairman of Dien Bich Commune People's Committee said: With the specific location as well as natural conditions and history left behind, when building a new advanced rural area, the commune identified the traffic criterion as the most difficult.

In addition, regarding the income criteria of the people, due to the difficulties of the fishing industry in recent years, the fishing output has decreased, so maintaining income for the people is also difficult. Therefore, to reach the goal of the new advanced rural area will be even more difficult, the government and the people will have to continue to unite and make efforts to overcome.

Not only Dien Bich commune but also other coastal communes in the province such as Dien Van, Dien Kim, Dien Hai in Dien Chau district; Nghi Thiet, Nghi Tien, Nghi Yen, Nghi Quang in Nghi Loc district also face difficulties in this criterion.

Mr. Bui Van Thanh - Chairman of Nghi Thiet Commune People's Committee said: The locality will reach the new rural area goal in 2020, currently focusing on building advanced new rural areas and the traffic criterion is also considered the most difficult due to natural conditions as well as limited investment resources for traffic. Currently, the commune aims to reach the advanced new rural area goal by the end of 2024, if not achieved, it will have to move to 2025.

Besides transportation, some other criteria on: "Irrigation and natural disaster prevention and control" or "Organization of production and development of rural economy " are also difficult for localities in specific regions.

For example, in criterion No. 3 on "Irrigation and natural disaster prevention and control", there is a requirement that "The proportion of agricultural land area irrigated and actively drained" must reach over 90%. However, for communes in the color zone, mainly dry crops such as peanuts, corn, sesame, etc., the irrigation system is very difficult to implement, partly because these crops are not water-loving plants, partly because the water supply to ensure irrigation is very low, often drought, saline intrusion, especially in the summer.

Frequent droughts make it impossible for communes in the color zone to build proactive irrigation systems. Photo: QA

For example, in Nghi Phong commune, Nghi Loc district, the whole commune has 662 hectares of agricultural land. However, due to the characteristics of a color-zone commune, Nghi Phong commune does not have an active irrigation system, so the rate of agricultural land area that is actively irrigated is 0%. Other color-zone communes in Nghi Loc district such as Nghi Thach, Nghi Thinh, Nghi Long... also face difficulties in this criterion.

Mr. Tran Nguyen Hoa - Head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Nghi Loc district said: In 2021, Nghi Loc decided that the district would meet the new rural standards, and currently, the communes are focusing on building advanced new rural areas. Up to now, the district has 4/28 communes meeting advanced new rural standards, and in 2023, it will strive to have 6-7 more communes reaching the advanced new rural standard.

However, according to the survey and assessment, there are still some criteria that communes in the area have difficulty implementing, such as criterion No. 18 on Quality of living environment (rate of centralized clean water); criterion No. 3 on Irrigation and natural disaster prevention and criterion No. 13 on Production organization and rural economic development...

Need to make efforts to adapt

With natural conditions and geographical locations that are not favorable for implementing the criteria in advanced new rural areas, some localities have proactively adapted and found solutions to achieve the criteria and gradually reach the finish line.

In criterion No. 13 of Organizing production and developing rural economy, there are requirements for local key products such as: Applying digital transformation to trace the origin of key products; The rate of key products sold through e-commerce channels... Some communes without key products have also found their own products.

Melon is considered a key product in Khanh Hop commune, Nghi Loc district when implementing the advanced NTM criteria. Photo: QA

In Khanh Hop commune, Nghi Loc district, the typical barren land, the rice land area is only 110ha, the rest is fertile land, each crop is grown a little like peanuts, corn, sesame... These products are mainly self-sufficient, not commodities, do not meet the requirements of key products, therefore, criterion number 13 will be difficult to implement. In that situation, the locality has mobilized people to learn and research growing melons and grapes in the area.

With the support of the district, local authorities and the efforts of the people, the melon and grape models have grown and developed well since 2020, with 3 harvests per year, bringing a guaranteed source of income. When implementing the new advanced rural area, melon products have also been selected as the main product when meeting the conditions of traceability, sales through e-commerce channels and are increasingly being replicated in the area.

Building rural roads when building new rural areas. Photo: QA

Regarding the traffic criteria, in the coastal communes facing many difficulties, the communes are also balancing and calculating resources to upgrade the traffic infrastructure, at the same time investing in stages, routes and registering the completion time suitable to the commune's potential, not rushing to register for an early completion when the locality faces difficult criteria.

Through the discussion, Mr. Nguyen Van Hang - Deputy Chief of the Provincial New Rural Program Coordination Office said: In fact, after reaching the new rural finish line, some localities in the province encountered difficulties in implementing the advanced new rural criteria. Therefore, communes need to proactively use resources, combined with the support of the province and district to balance investment, and have a direction for implementing the criteria. For difficult criteria, the Appraisal Council's viewpoint is to consider each locality specifically, and create conditions, but the commune must commit to completing it in the near future, present a roadmap, and a specific time to complete the criteria before the Appraisal Council considers and approves.

Up to now, Nghe An province has had 309/411 communes meeting new rural standards, of which 53 communes have met advanced new rural standards, 6 communes have met model new rural standards, and 7 district-level units have met new rural standards. Resolution No. 18/2020/NQ-HDND dated December 13, 2020 of the Provincial People's Council set the target of building new rural areas by 2025 with 82% of communes meeting new rural standards (of which 20% of communes have met advanced new rural standards, 5% of communes have met model new rural standards) and 11 district-level units have been recognized for completing the task of building and meeting new rural standards (of which 1 district has met model new rural standards).

Source: https://baonghean.vn/thuc-hien-tieu-chi-nong-thon-moi-nang-cao-o-nghe-an-nhieu-dia-phuong-gap-kho-post280576.html